I go to work to work because I need a paycheck, not to make friends.
Where I am there is a new coworker that to me acts needy (think of Slow Horses’s Struan Loy), tries befriending me, but he invariably asks if everything’s ok. I don’t care about this person’s life.
The first 2 times I didn’t think anything of it, but he asks that every day and it’s becoming tiring.
I feel mobbed and stalked, mobbed because he keeps insinuating there is something wrong with me just because I don’t ask him about his private life and do my job, and stalked, because he is so fixated on me.
going to HR over this seems ridiculous, but I’m starting to hate his voice.
“Really, dude? I am so tired of you asking that. It’s none of your business if I’m ok or not. Stop asking.”
Tell him directly first. Then if he persists go to your boss or HR and tell them you think probably he is trying to be nice but keeps interrupting your work and won’t stop, and the distractions are starting to interfere with your work.
Seriously, just say this OP. You being an introvert has nothing to do with saying the bare minimum. It’s honestly insulting using that as a crutch, introverts just don’t like extended social interaction and need time to recharge. We aren’t timid or frozen.
Correction: introverts may or may not like extended social interaction, and need time to recharge.